"If you're a musician and an artist, you don't just stop"
About this Quote
The intent is both personal and corrective. Fahey came up in a scene that prized reinvention (from Bananarama to Shakespears Sister) while simultaneously policing who gets to reinvent. For male artists, persistence is canon-building; for women, it’s often framed as desperation. Her phrasing turns that double standard inside out. Stopping isn’t presented as a neutral choice, but as an unnatural rupture - something imposed by burnout, ageism, or the business machinery that treats art as a product line with an expiry date.
The subtext lands like a quiet dare: you can pause, pivot, disappear, come back under a different name, but the artistic impulse keeps moving, whether the charts approve or not. It’s also a subtle rebuke to the cultural habit of mistaking visibility for validity. Fahey isn’t romanticizing suffering; she’s insisting on continuity. The point isn’t that artists must always perform - it’s that making is what they do when no one’s watching.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Fahey, Siobhan. (2026, January 17). If you're a musician and an artist, you don't just stop. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-youre-a-musician-and-an-artist-you-dont-just-77351/
Chicago Style
Fahey, Siobhan. "If you're a musician and an artist, you don't just stop." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-youre-a-musician-and-an-artist-you-dont-just-77351/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If you're a musician and an artist, you don't just stop." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-youre-a-musician-and-an-artist-you-dont-just-77351/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




